Sound Bytes; He Added 'Virtual' to 'Reality'

By Peter H. Lewis

Published: September 25, 1994

Jaron Zepel Lanier coined the term "virtual reality" and developed the exotic "eyephones" and "data gloves" that allow a computer user to experience simulated worlds that can be generated by computer software. In 1993 his company, VPL Inc., along with the many virtual-reality patents he had pledged as collateral, were taken over by its French investor, the electronics conglomerate Thomson-CSF. He shrugs off the business failure with a toss of his long, blond dreadlocks, attributing it to youth and business inexperience.

Now, with the backing of private investors from the computer and biotechnology industries, he has started a company called New Leaf in Silicon Valley to develop commercial applications for complex computer simulations. He is also working with a New York City company, Original Ventures, to develop virtual reality entertainment centers.

Question. What are you doing at New Leaf?

Answer. We've been focusing on medical applications. One way is to use virtual reality as an interface for complicated surgical equipment, such as the sophisticated, small devices that work with endoscopes within the body, which are notoriously hard to control. The goal is to make them as easy to use as hand tools.

A virtual reality system serves as something analogous to a fighter pilot's heads-up display, to help integrate all the data and the control functions. It's not just a good idea, it's really a requirement to move forward to the next level of surgery instrumentation.

It can also be used for remote consultation. If you have a real-time, accurate simulation of what's going on inside a patient's body, you might bring in some specialist from another town, over a network, and say, "What's this weird stalk here? What's this bump?"

Q. Can you tell us about your plans for the virtual reality entertainment centers?

A. At some point in time, perhaps. What I will say now is that it's not pure entertainment. It's trying to integrate a number of different functions that a developer would be interested in putting in one place, involving new ideas about retail, about education, about services. It's a sort of full- spectrum approach to what would interest kids and their parents, as opposed to just an entertainment center. It's going to be quite amazing.

Q. Everyone seems to be using the phrase "virtual reality" these days, even for simple computer games. Does that bother you?

A. Oh, it's okay. I used to get peeved when I saw people using it to sell things. The guy who used to be Prince used it on his latest interactive CD. That's pathetic.

I used to have a trademark on the phrase, you know. It's a pretty poor phrase in terms of clarity, but it has good mojo.But I gave it up, because if we tried to protect it, like Xerox or Kleenex, it would have been too expensive.

Q. Speaking of limbo, what about the book you were writing?

A. I'm writing three books. One is heroically late, one is disastrously late, and one is just simply late. When my first book, on virtual reality, passed the seven year mark on being late, I called my editor at Harcourt Brace and said, "Do you realize that every cell in my body has regenerated since the book deadline?" Jaron Zepel Lanier Born: May 3, 1960, New York City. Education: Left high school and sneaked into college at 15; no degrees. "That would be bad form." Noncomputer reading: "A World Lit Only by Fire," by William Manchester. Homes: Sausalito, Calif., and New York City. Ideal Escape: A musical vacation to Java. Car: A "boring" Audi, but misses his Citroen ES21. Computer: Apple Macintosh Powerbook. World Wide Web address: http:// www.well.com/Community/Jaron.Lanier/